Sports, such as baseball and softball, involve the use of a bat for striking a moving ball. Generally, a thrower or pitcher propels the relatively small ball towards a batter holding the relatively small bat. The batter has an associated "strike zone" and is required to swing the bat and hit the ball when the ball thrown into the strike zone or be penalized in the form of a "strike."
To enable the batter to contact the moving ball, the batter must develop hand and eye coordination skills. The hand and eye coordination skills permit the batter to determine when and where to swing the bat according to the speed and flight path of the oncoming ball.
Proficiency in batting oftentimes requires the batter to spend a substantial amount of time developing the hand and eye coordination skills required to hit the ball with the bat, at various speeds and trajectories of the ball. In the past, during batting practice, it has been necessary for the batting practice thrower, positioned in front of and a good distance away from the batter, to hurl the ball towards the strike zone. While this conventional approach enables the batter to practice hitting the ball, it was unduly burdensome in certain circumstances in that such a batting practice approach requires at least three players: the batter, the pitcher, and a third person to retrieve the ball. Also, the pitcher must possess adequate skills to repeatedly throw the ball at or near the strike zone.
To reduce the number of players necessary to practice batting skills and also to better enable the batter to adjust or correct his or her swing, a batting tee was introduced. The batting tee included an upstanding post and a recess at the top of the post to support the ball. The height of the post was adjusted to approximate the strike zone of the batter.
By striking at the ball atop the post, the batter was able to practice swinging and striking the stationary ball to develop hand and eye coordination skills, and to adjust or correct his or her swing of the bat. Thus, the need for a batting practice pitcher was eliminated. However, the requirement for another person to retrieve the struck ball remains.
Batting tees have also employed a line connected at one of its ends to the post and fixed at its other end to the ball. The line permitted the stationary ball to be struck, and yet the line limited the distance that the ball could travel. As a result, the batter could easily retrieve the ball without the aid of others.
Thus, batting tees enable batters to practice alone. However, the batter was still required to retrieve a ball that had been struck. Thus, an inordinately large amount of time was spent by the batter retrieving the ball and replacing it onto the tee. Thus, practice time was lost.
The introduction of a batting cage marketed under the trademark "SOLOHITTER", by Sports Lab USA of San Diego, Calif., enables a batter to practice batting a stationary ball without the need for other persons to assist. Furthermore, the need to retrieve a ball which had been struck was eliminated.
The SOLOHITTER batting cage included a large frame structure supporting a ball receiving net and three rubber lines supporting a ball in front of the frame to help support the ball in a stationary position at a desired ball hitting height.
The batter could use the device to practice batting skills without spending time retrieving balls. In this regard, the batter could swing at the stationary ball and hit it into the net. The net and the three lines cooperate to absorb the energy imparted to the ball, and eventually return the ball to its original stationary position.
Although the SOLOHITTER.TM. enabled a batter to practice without retrieving balls that had been hit, the device is very expensive and not accessible for a large number of persons. Furthermore, the device did not provide hand and eye coordination skills relative to a moving ball, such as would be confronted by a batter in an actual game environment.
To provide practice for a batter to develop hand and eye coordination for striking a moving ball, a ball batting aid was introduced by K-Bear Athletics, Inc. of St. Joseph, Mich. The ball batting aid was intended for use by two people, a batter and a holder or user. The batting aid included a pair of spaced apart handles connected at one end to a rope, and a hard rubber ball is secured to the other end of the rope. The distance between the handle end and the ball was approximately 16 feet. U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,866 describes a method of securing the ball to the rope, and is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
The batting aid was used by having the user stand about sixteen feet away from the batter. The batting aid user would grasp the handles with both hands spaced apart from one another to enable the handle to be firmly grasped. The handles would then be manipulated with both of the hands of the holder to cause the ball to move in a circle about the handle above the head of the user. By controlling the flight of the ball, the user could direct the ball toward the strike zone of the batter to enable the batter to attempt to strike the moving ball, and thereby cause it to move in a reverse direction along a similar circular path of travel about the user. The user could then stop the ball, and repeat the operation.
Even though the batting aid enabled a batter to practice with a moving ball, the batting aid had a number of drawbacks. For example, the user was susceptible to injuries inflicted by the batter striking, or attempting to strike the moving ball. In this regard, the sudden impact of the bat on the ball, or the rope if the ball was missed, was transmitted by the rope to the handles. Thus, the hands and arms of the user could be injured by the sudden jerking motion when the ball on the rope was hit by the bat.
Similarly, the batter could be injured if the batter missed the ball and contacted the rope instead. In this situation, the hitting of the rope could abruptly interfere with the swing of the bat by the batter. This unexpected jerking of the bat could lead to injuries to the hands and upper body of the batter.
In addition to the drawbacks related to injuries, the batting aid was very difficult to control. The operation of the batting aid by the user required a large amount of physical strength and agility to make the ball circle about the handles at a desirable speed. The holder also had to possess the necessary strength to continue to rotate the ball for a sustained period of time, because the batter would not swing at the ball every time that it came around, even if the ball was within the strike zone. Continuously rotating the ball would drain the upper body strength of the holder, tiring out the arms of the holder. As a result, the batting aid was difficult if not impossible for a young person that did not have a great deal of upper body strength to operate the batting aid.
Due to the small size of the strike zone, the user has had great difficulty in attempting to control the ball so that the path of travel of the ball included the strike zone of the batter. In this regard, the user had to hold securely the two handles in preparation for a sudden impact on the ball or the rope, and yet be able to swing the ball over the head of the user and downwardly toward and through the strike zone. The movement of the ball had to be controlled in such a manner that the ball would continue to travel repeatedly through the circular path of travel until the batter struck and hit the moving ball with a bat.
Such an operation requires a great deal of skill to continue effectively, without tiring. Such operation is difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish for younger or smaller people.
A batting practice device for swinging a ball by a user in an orbit is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,238,241, which is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. The disclosed batting practice device includes a tether assembly having a handle and a first inelastic segment of cord coupled to the handle at two places. A second inelastic segment of cord is connected at one end to a ball. The free end of the first segment is coupled to the free end of the second segment by a continuous elastic band. A third inelastic segment of cord is connected between the two free ends to reduce the possibility of over extension and rupture of elastic band.
Although the tether assembly provides some stretch for safety purposes, the tether assembly can be stretched quite easily. Once stretched to the limit, the tether assembly is suddenly and instantly prevented from stretching further by the third inelastic segment. Thus, the batter and the user would first experience a slight resistance to a blow to the tether assembly, and then be suddenly jerked as the tether assembly reached its stretching capacity.
The disclosed handle is similar to tow rope handles used for water skiing. In this regard, the handle is secured at its top and bottom to the first inelastic segment to form a triangular opening to receive the fingers of the user. As a result, the user must exert unnecessary energy in order to rotate the ball in the desired orbit.
Due to the handle configuration, the wrist of the user involved in rotating the ball must be rotated itself to prevent the first inelastic segment from wrapping around the hand of the user holding the handle. Alternatively, the body of the user must be rotated simultaneously with the ball. In either case, the additional energy exerted by the user to cause the ball to rotate without wrapping around the user's hand will unnecessarily reduce the amount of time that the user can continue to rotate the ball. Furthermore, the chance of injury to the user is increased due to the unnatural contortions that are required of the user.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved batting practice aid which permits a ball to be delivered to the strike zone of a batter and permits the ball to be retrieved easily. Such a batting practice aid should protect the users from injury and should enable a variety of people to use the batting practice aid, including younger or smaller people having relatively little upper body strength.